I just got back from a week in Savannah, Georgia. It was lovely – I stayed downtown in the historic district, and in addition to the usual tourist-y stuff I did my share of wandering around all the beautiful squares with their sculptural live oaks decked out in Spanish moss, sitting on benches, and chatting with friendly strangers.
So delicious.
I also ate a ridiculous amount of regional Southern food – fried catfish and chicken, grits, various fat-laden side dishes, and tons of dessert options (illustrated by the cover photo lol). My stomach was all “… uh, what is happening here?” by the end of the trip. I’m now in recovery mode with salads and kefir, but I have no regrets.
Since I don’t have a fragrance post ready (although I’m working on it), tell me: is there a specific item you’ve eaten while on vacation or traveling that you think about longingly, the equivalent of a fragrance that made you swoon? Have you tried to re-create it at home? Ordered it on GoldBelly? Returned to the area just to eat it again?
Off the top of my head, three of mine:
The sweet potato cobbler in Savannah and the impetus for this topic. I went to The Peach Cobbler Factory and got the “flight” of various cobblers (see photo above), because why choose one when you can have four? Served with a big dish of vanilla ice cream on the side. They were all good, but the sweet potato was fantastic – so fantastic that I went back the next day for more. The gal behind the counter recognized me. Is that embarrassing?
The “cinnamon record” from the Granville Island public market in Vancouver. It’s sort of like a palmier in texture, but more candied, with bits that are crunchy and others that are chewy. My mouth waters just typing that. It’s also the size of an LP (hence the name.) It is shockingly good. I tried to replicate it with store-bought phyllo and failed. I looked online for mail order options (another failure). Then I discovered a local panaderia which has something very similar, if not quite as chewy and spectacular. It’ll do, though!
Soft-serve “brown bread” ice cream from a local joint in Topeka, Kansas. I ordered it because it sounded so weird, to be honest. Research tells me it’s more of a New England (and also Old England) thing. The original recipe is made with brown breadcrumbs; the New England version’s secret ingredients are maple syrup and Grape Nuts, which have softened in the churning process. I’ve tried MacGyvering it with store-bought ice cream and pre-soaked Grape Nuts. It’s good, but it’s not the same. I may get an ice cream maker just to do one of the online recipes.
Okay, your turn! Is there a food item or dish you long for? Have you tried to replicate it, or have it shipped to you? Do you make special trips to have it every time you’re in the area?
photos: mine
LOVE that you are eating your way through a holiday March.
I’m a very slow adaptor to new foods. Happy to try most things and continue to taste things I know are not yummy for me in case of change BUT if I’m trying something new it needs to be at the very start of a meal, when I’m hungry and there needs to be something I like nearby in case the taste needs to be overwritten ASAP.
Mostly I won’t like something on the first taste. Jin is very patient with me though and will make sure I get to try something he really likes a few times. He has a fairly good success rate and my palate has broadened a lot in our 13 years together.
We were recently in Taiwan and there’s a very famous breakfast joint that Jin had to try. He even woke up super early our first day in Taipei and snuck out to try their menu so he would know what was probably going to be a yes. Next morning he very confidently ordered a few things and made me try them. The food and the store both looked like something I’d hurry past but as Jin had tried everything in the store and survived I had a go. We had a win and now I’m craving their weird pancake/roti with meat and egg as a filling. It was unbelievable.
Jin will often recreate foods we fall in love with in restaurants. Many times he has bettered their product.
Portia xx
So many amazing panini sandwiches in Florence, made w/unsalted bread (schiacciata), various cured meats & cheeses, and truffled ricotta spread. Have tried to replicate at home, but feel like I just need to go back!
That sounds like the sort of thing you could ONLY get in Florence, never quite replicated here. I loved Florence, although I was focused mostly on desserts.
From my childhood in Ankara, Turkey (or Turkiye as it now wants to be spelled), down on Tunali Cadesi there was a nice restaurant that made the most delicious tiny lamb chops. Have never had anything like them again. Then, back in the 90s there was this bakery that made a blueberry and lemon loaf cake that was amazing. So sweet-tart and good. Those are the two that come to mind.
Oooh those both sound absolutely fantastic! And particularly the lamb chops from Turkey sound like something that’d never taste the same if you tried to replicate it.
Oh, March, yes. First would be food from Kulishkat in Brooklyn — down home Middle Eastern. A plate of shawarma, hummus, tahini, salad and fresh pita. Second, ice cream (specifically Peanutbutter Takes the Cup) from Ample Hills in Prospect Heights. Finally, onion rings from the shack on the beach in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire—hot and crispy out of the oil. Sigh. None of these are gettable for me here but I think of them often and fondly.
On a different note, I’m with Dina C and would love a post on your lipstick recommendations, which have always been awesome.
Yes! Latest lipstick recommendations please! 🙂
Ha! Okay, I’ll do one!
Yummmmmmm those all sound absolutely fabulous and not something you could just whip up at home from your fond memories… I’d think there’d be somewhere you could get good Middle Eastern? There’s a place here that’s pretty good and scratches that itch for me, but not “memorable” in the way yours is.
meant to add, I’ll ponder a lipstick post!
Omg that brown bread ice cream sounds sooooo gooood.. I’d say Roscoe’s but it’s really across town, not out of town. Weird that I’ll drive to Santa Barbara for guacamole but not to Hollywood for a waffle. But since I’d end up looking like Victor Buono’s fatter cousin if I indulged as much as I want.
Some of the ones I miss:
Cider donuts from Atkins Farm in Amherst, MA. For some reason these are the best- perfect combo of cakey and doughy with the tang of real cider. Those wan things from Trader Joe’s should hang their heads in shame.
Butter burgers from Solly’s in Milwaukee. They made them on America’s Test Kitchen but they’re better at the source. They sound vile (a burger cooked in butter on a butter soaked bun? Really?) but they’re divine. But order 1/2 what you think you want. I’ve never been able to finish one, and I never got a large.
Fresh bialys from Kossar’s in New York. Everybody goes on and on about New York bagels and they’re good. But I preferred the bialy- a sort of cousin that’s not boiled and has a bit of sautéed onion in the center. When I lived in NY in Alphabet city and worked by Bloomingdale’s I’d walk to work, fueled by a regular coffee and two of those babies. I wish someone sold them here.
The waffle is worth the walk, which you’d have to do if you indulged as often as you would like.
And only the Roscoe’s at Sunset & Gower. The others are not quite…. y’know?
Let’s go back to LA and meet Tom at Roscoe’s! <3
That’s a plan!
The cider donuts from TJs are sadness on a plate, and people rave over them! They’ve clearly never tasted the good stuff. Yours sound delicious. I keep meaning to try a butter burger, they don’t have them here but I run across them. They don’t sound vile to me at all, everything’s better with butter lol. And I get it about the bialys.
“sadness on a plate” is pretty accurate. But I don’t think they travel well, which is why I never tried to have them shipped.
The only things I long for, I will probably never be able to have again. The pastis cake from a small bakery in a tiny town in southwestern France, and navette cookies from the bakery in Marseille that specializes in them. I have baked my own pastis cake with a decent result but it will never be exactly like the real thing. I haven’t tried to make the navettes yet but it’s on my list of things to do someday. My baking mojo has diminished a lot over the years.
Oh, those sound so specialized and EXACTLY the type of thing I’m talking about — it’d never taste the same in your house, even if you had the exact recipe, IMO.
OMG! I remember that ‘brown bread’ ice cream! Not persackly my taste but it was tasty!!!
My ‘out of town’ treat is always Roscoe’s Chicken and waffles – their yeasted waffles (which is what I think they are – it’s not like they’re forthcoming with the recipe) are DA BOMB! I worked in LA for years on production and always went to Roscoe’s for lunch but it wasn’t until I went with a client/friend and he asked ‘you’re not going to have a waffle?’ and he gave me a bite of his that I saw GOD
I ate THREE of them that day. Three!
oh LORD I remember Roscoe’s! I had it with you! And it’s a damn good thing there isn’t one here or I’d be in trouble. It was soooooo goood (which it’d need to be to get past your bread defenses haha). That is definitely a “every time I’m in LA we’re going” type of place.